"Union" of the Rivers

"Union" of the Rivers. Union City Heritage Water Trail. , At this point the Coldwater and St. Joe Rivers join, creating their namesake “Union” City. In the late 1820s a road surveying party following the Washtenaw Indian Trail that later became M-60 stumbled upon this junction and returned giving a glowing account of the area. In the early 1830s, Isaiah W. Bennet of New York State made an exploratory tour along the St. Joe. He also was struck with the advantages of this area. He and another prospector, Jeremiah Marvin, purchased a tract of several hundred acres from the government in 1831. The first permanent settler in the area was Justus Goodwin, who came from New York State and in 1833 purchased 568 acres of land from Marvin for $2000. This included the present site of the business district. Goodwin registered the town of Goodwinsville with Branch County on 8/27/1835. The first tide of immigrants from New England arrived in 1836. In 1837 another group, Richard and Israel Clark, Lyman Gilbert, and Isaac Diamond, laid out a 200 acre tract of land that was called “Union City” for the confluence of the two rivers. The name of the Goodwinsville Post Office was changed to Union City in 1840, but the town remained as Goodwinsville until 1/25/1866 when it was officially incorporated as the Village of Union City. By 1870 the population had swelled to 1,035 and the business district began to show signs of growth.